This is simply not true at all and I have multiple sources that prove your personal experience is not typical. Rents are increasing, have been increasing since 2009, are near all time highs, and have increased the most during 2012.

Come June, I'll have $400/mth that says your are wrong. Maybe more if things keep getting worse, which I don't see why it would change. Lots of people around me are losing their jobs, taking less paying jobs, and stressed to the limit to make the mortgage payment. Rents are going nowhere from here. Down is the only direction in my opinion and experience.

Makes me laugh. "The city of Pleasanton housing commission". I bet their motto is

"To release reports to the community to talk about how beautiful and prosperous our city is becoming. To promote home ownership in an effort to increase the tax base. Then use this increased revenue to offer bonuses and salary adjustments to all the members of the housing commission."

Yah, no doctoring of the numbers from that place. All good there Iwog. Keep the shell game going.

Just talked to my landlord yesterday. A call I initiated. He is open to a rent reduction and also asked me to consider buying the place. Seems like he finally is realizing there is more money in selling rather than collecting rents. I told him I wouldn't be a buying at today's appraisals.

So, I am probably going to lock in for another years of leases soon at a reduced rate. Probably down about $400. So, instead of $3000, I would be paying $2600. The selling price would be upwards of 1.1m. You do the math. Don't believe all the junk thrown on this site from the housing pumpers, do you own homework. There are great opportunities for those that don't want to just follow the herd.

Yah, no doctoring of the numbers from that place. All good there Iwog. Keep the shell game going.

Always the same thing isn't it. Your total lack of data, your compelling vacuum of no information whatsoever, (other than your claimed personal anecdote) will always trump every study that anyone else brings to the table.

So, I am probably going to lock in for another years of leases soon at a reduced rate. Probably down about $400. So, instead of $3000, I would be paying $2600. The selling price would be upwards of 1.1m

I am sure that there are individual examples out there that can prove any trend wrong. Sometimes you are at the right place at the right time.

But let's stick to data that you can show. Links etc. Everything else is hear say.

You can tell us that you now rent a 2Mill house for $500/month. I can't prove you wrong.

Why is it that when house prices drop, the media always reports this as a negative thing? (I think this article referred the declines of the past 5 years as "horrible") I would say the declines of the past five years have been "wonderful." What's negative about a young family being able to afford a home that they were previously priced out of? Nothing!

Yah, no doctoring of the numbers from that place. All good there Iwog. Keep the shell game going.

Always the same thing isn't it. Your total lack of data, your compelling vacuum of no information whatsoever, (other than your claimed personal anecdote) will always trump every study that anyone else brings to the table.

Pretty standard with you isn't it.

I don't look at data from sources where their salaries depend on the trend going in one particular direction. Sadly, in real estate most of the information released to the public is from such sources. I have my personal anecdote and that is fine with me. I am really the only one I would trust with my hard fought savings anyway. You stick to your slanted data analysis, and I'll stick to my real life experiences.

I don't look at data from sources where their salaries depend on the trend going in one particular direction. Sadly, in real estate most of the information released to the public is from such sources. I have my personal anecdote and that is fine with me. I am really the only one I would trust with my hard fought savings anyway. You stick to your slanted data analysis, and I'll stick to my real life experiences.

In other words--I'll stick my head in the sand and ignore anything that disagrees with my preconceived notions.

I don't look at data from sources where their salaries depend on the trend going in one particular direction. Sadly, in real estate most of the information released to the public is from such sources. I have my personal anecdote and that is fine with me. I am really the only one I would trust with my hard fought savings anyway. You stick to your slanted data analysis, and I'll stick to my real life experiences.

In other words--I'll stick my head in the sand and ignore anything that disagrees with my preconceived notions.

Good luck with that.

Yah, that is what it means. Trust is earned is the lesson here. No real estate organization has ever done anything to build my trust. So, I don't trust them or their reports. I do, however, trust my experience and judgement. Head in the sand or not. You can go on believing NAR like organizations all you want. You can even put your skin in the ponzi scheme and get burned. It really doesn't bother me. If anything, it gives me a good chuckle.

I agree with distrusting NAR *opinions*. They are clearly biased. But distrusting *data* that is easily verifiable simply because the NAR compiled it is folly. You have to be able to separate data from opinion.

The fact still remains you could have taken this opportunity to demonstrate some of your talking points, but you chose not to, so let me help you out.

What this guy is saying is that the price per housing unit should be more homogenous, nationally. He ignores some data like wages, and economic growth in a region, but he still has a point.

There is no reason for the number of housing units, which totals millions, that were built between 2003 to 2008 to be selling for the high prices they once commanded. We should see the price per housing unit fall like a rock.

His second point, which you could have seized on is the price per square foot.

You keep making construction cost claims across all 48 States as being some how equal, OK, there is some truth to that, so why do we have prices from $200 per sq ft to $600 per sq ft in the same area.

The only problem I see with this guy is he wants to charge for his data.

the team at Build LLC has been superb about following up with us and taking care of miscellaneous things that needed taking care of; things like fixing or replacing some door hardware, regrouting some cracked grout, and facilitating the replacement of a (gigantic!) defective pane of glass. Not only has everything been done quickly and efficiently, but almost as importantly, it’s been done happily. Team Build stands behind their work, and as has been the case from the beginning, they aren’t happy unless you are happy.